Malaysia - roaming around KL (part 2)

My wife and youngest kid visited me in KL for few days. Since our hotel is walking distance from KL Sentral hence; all our trips start and ends from this place.

We visited KL Menara Tower on their first day. We took A budget taxi from KL Sentral; paid 14 RM. In front of the tower itself was Malaysian Cultural Village.

MENARA TOWER

KL Tower ground staff would press the TH01 where the observation deck is located. Prior to that, you will be asked to line-up for a souvenir shot by some "proPAYsional" photographer. We didn't ask for our picture when we left the KL Tower for we were not interested on ground shot. Besides, I am sure it would be costly. We went there to see the view from observation deck.

My Buddy, enjoying the view

The observation deck staff provided each of us a portable electronic voice-guided tour with headset explaining the view you were looking at. It was available in English and other languages. Mine was not working. Anyway, we have enjoyed the view and photoshoots.

KL Tower is over-looking Petronas Towers; it is built on top of a hill. I didn't bother to bring my wife and kid to Petronas Sky Bridge. We have no time to queue and I believe that the panoramic view from KL Tower observation deck is much better. I was correct.

KL (Menara) Tower during night time. Shot taken from KLCC (Petronas Towers) front facade.

For the observation deck package at KL Tower, we paid 45 RM each (adult) which is inclusive of 1 free extra package. You can select from 3 packages, mini-zoo and simulator. I forgot the third one.

Beryl's CHOCOLATE Kingdom

From KL Tower, we decided to go to KLCC (Petronas Towers). We availed a taxi package from KL Tower staff at the entrance worth 25 RM with side-trip to Beryls' Chocolate Kingdom. The taxi would wait for us maximum of 30 minutes.

I was surprised to see countless products of Beryl's chocolate. However, we were disappointed with the price. A 500 grams of assorted Beryl's chocolate costs 45 RM. We didn't buy anything from here. It is obvious that this place is not for budget tourists. Unless you have been to Central Market you might be tempted to purchase here. Though the Beryl's outlet at Central Market has limited variety, the price of assorted is only 19 RM. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the free-taste except the Durian flavored chocolate.

with my Buddy

From here, the taxi brought us direct to KLCC (Petrona Towers). Took some shots and dined at Mixed Rice at KLCC food court.

After taking our lunch at KLCC, we headed back to our hotel to have some rest. We went back to KL Sentral by KLCC LRT station at Ampang Mall which was connected to basement of KLCC mall.

MERDEKA SQUARE

After few hours of rest, we went to Merdeka Square by taxi. We paid 6 RM.

MASJID JAMEK

From Merdeka Square, we walked up to Masjid Jamek, the oldest mosque in KL. It is located at the back of this colonial building at Merdeka Square.

Two blocks away from this Masjid is Central Market

And around two blocks from here is the Petaling Street or Chinatown

The street was very crowded. At that time, shop owners were starting to put up their shops along the road so it was difficult to walk from traverse the entire street. To add, nothing special to see here, you can purchase the same items at Divisoria. Actually, our Divisoria is better less the "pitas gangs."

Upon reaching the other side of this street, we decided to go back to our hotel by taxi since we didn't know the location of Pasar Seni LRT station. We haggled with the taxi driver and end-up paying 15 RM.

The following day, we grabbed a quick breakfast at the hotel and went to batu Caves from KL Sentral thru KTM LRT. Paid 1 RM per person.

BATU CAVES

The timing was bad, both Murugan and Hanuman were undergoing maintenance jobs.

We went back to KL Sentral by LRT. There is a new LRT station just beside the side entrance of Batu Caves.

From KL Sentral, walked back to our hotel and took few hours of rest to avoid the scorching heat of the sun. Having rested, we went to Sungei Wang Plaza by taxi. That was the first time we encountered KL traffic. It was tolerable compared with our own traffic in Manila. Normally, traffic occurs from Imbi to Bukit Bintang monorail stations due to presence of shopping malls such as Berjaya, Imbi and Sungei Wang. We paid 11 RM from our hotel to SWP.

Sungei Wang Plaza

My wife enjoyed shopping at Sungei Wang Plaza, a typical shopaholic tourist. She gets easily tired walking around historical places but has the energy to explore all those shops inside the mall or market.

After shopping at Sungei Wang Plaza, we called it a day and headed back to our hotel by monorail from Bukit Bintang station. Beware of pickpockets, the train was full to the brim and one guy immediately positioned himself at my back when I entered the train. I felt something was pushing my wallet upward hence I re-positioned myself. After few minutes, this time, I felt something was touching my front-right pocket, I looked at the guy and he smiled at me and raised his hand. Fortunately, I was bigger than him and I was ready for any eventuality but I decided to let it go, maybe I was wrong.

We alighted at Tun Sambanthan station which is 5 minutes walk from our hotel. Fare was 1.60 RM each.

The following day, after visiting Genting Highlands, we headed to Berjaya Times square Mall from Tun Sambanthan monorail station.

Berjaya Times Square Mall

Nothing interesting here. However, it was true about some comments on web travel forums that this mall has less crowd and quite huge. We didn't bother to pay a visit to indoor theme park.

All in all, it was quite a breeze to visit these places due to proximity of our hotel (Hotel Summer View) to KL Sentral.